Guitars and Dancers!

Added
03 Apr 2012

Our last full day in Panama so a good time to enjoy the gardens, swimming pools and private beach at the InterContinental Playa Bonita Resort. Around lunch time the heavens open and the rainy season appears to start! The heavy rain is quite exciting for a while but fortunately it doesn't last long. Mid-afternoon the hotel staff begin to prepare the Pelican Grill for our grand finale dinner event. The restaurant becomes a private "Furlongs" venue this evening, so dining tables are re-arranged and dressed for a special event, and a huge variety of food is planned. Around 7pm guests arrive and are first greeted with a blue cocktail, followed by plenty of complimentary wine! Background music during dinner is provided by a wonderful guitar trip called 'Safero', playing a selection of classical and modern tunes. Richard naturally offers the musicians some drinks as a gesture of hospitality and by the end of the evening they've consumed nearly a bottle of whisky! Surprisingly, they continued to play well all evening. As a finale surprise, a Panamanian National Folklore Group make an appearance. This is loud and colourful and includes solo and group dancing with accordion and drum music, followed by a brass ensemble. Panama's folklore is expressed in traditional dances with the ladies wearing the colourful national costume called "Pollera"complete with "tembleques" (hair ornaments); and the gentlemen wearing embroidered, long- sleeved shirts, calf-high trousers, and a straw "Montuno" hat. One of the men looks rather like Cristian, our Panamanian naturalist on board the National Geographic Sea Lion. Is he moonlighting perhaps?